A St. Petersburg woman is facing charges after reporting to police she was attacked and sharing an AI-generated image of the suspect.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — What started as a frightening 911 call turned out to be completely fake.

St. Petersburg police say a woman who claimed a stranger broke into her apartment and attacked her made up the story — and even created a fake suspect image using artificial intelligence.

Last month, officers responded to a reported break-in at the apartment of 32-year-old Brooke Schinault.

“The victim, now suspect, had shown proof of images of a person that she didn’t know and had entered her home forcibly and possibly injured her getting inside of her house,” said Ashley Limardo, public information officer with the St. Petersburg Police Department.

Investigators say forensic teams and a K-9 unit searched the area but found no suspect.

A few hours later, Schinault’s boyfriend called police back, saying she hadn’t told them everything. When officers returned, Schinault claimed she had also been sexually assaulted.

That’s when a detective was called to the scene and immediately became suspicious of the photo Schinault provided.

“That detective immediately saw the proof, or the evidence, she provided and immediately knew this was part of a TikTok trend that we’re seeing online,” Limardo said.

According to police, investigators later found the AI-generated image saved in Schinault’s deleted files — created days before she ever called 911.

“It’s a waste of resources. We had officers go out to this home twice in one day,” Limardo said.

Limardo said creating fake pictures like the one Schinault used isn’t difficult. It can take just a few minutes with AI software.

“Even though we suspect it’s false, we’re still going to handle it as if we believe it’s a real case, go through the process and the evidence until we have proof it’s not,” Limardo said.

Police say Schinault is now charged with two misdemeanors and is currently out on bond.

10 Tampa Bay News reached out to Schinault for comment, but the phone number she gave police is disconnected.